I was on the sidewalk And you were in a dream You said you couldn't stand it these days Your sensitivity The city felt oppressive The heat and the noise And even at home you felt every unspoken voice I don't know how, but I tell you'll be fine And I set the table and you pour the wine You always have been capable Always have been kind It isn't really your fault Just the tenor of the times You got a job and lost it And they never told you why And you can't seem to get past it This ordinary lie And they're saying this summer Is the worst it's ever been With the radio on And they're talking Another shooting Foods creeping in the lowlands And everybody's shouting And I just hold your hand And I say nothing I say nothing at all I don't think my voice matters really after all I was raised to hear the curlews I was raised to notice light And I watch the little swallows Delicate in their flight I trail my hand down through the water Of the familiar riverside For hours in such silence, I lay beside Terrified, for knowing in my time For all the parts per million For unstoppable design How can you get over knowing all you know? All the facts and the figures you learned years ago I moved back to the city I lost myself in you Or in some kind of fiction Or in some kind of truth I let myself get cynical I felt cold and bruised And the facts never changed And time only moves And somewhere above the tree line Silent just like you The river never froze in And footsteps break through And somehow in my heart Am I supposed to make do With the fragments of the stars The blue-white streetlights let through? All the birds not calling All the hot winds blow I took your picture in the sunset Smiling in the shadow You and I, we are complicit You and I were never blind Now we're gonna live with it, our open eyes